Be dismissed for children's church at this time. That's you this morning, little John. So, I see we have first, second, and third John here today. Alright. John's being distracted by somebody giving him something, M and M's, I knew it.

Alright. Numbers chapter 23. Numbers chapter 23, we're going to begin reading in a moment in verse 14. I'll fill in some of the context here in a minute. It'll make just a bit more sense and follow with me if you would.

Numbers 23 and verse 14. And he brought him and he is Balak. He is the king of Moab bought brought Balaam. He is a prophet of sorts. So, he brought Balak brought Balaam into the Field Of Zophim to the top of Pisgah, that's a mountain and built seven altars and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar and he said unto Balak, stand here by the by thy burnt offering while I meet the Lord yonder and the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, go again unto Balak and say thus, and when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him, and Balak said unto Balaam, what hath the Lord spoken?

And he took his pup his parable and said, rise up Balak and hear, hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said and shall he not do it or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment to bless and he hath blessed and I cannot reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel.

The Lord is God is with him and the shout of the king is among them. God brought them out of Egypt. He hath hath as it were the strength of an unicorn. Surely, there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel. According to this time, it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, what hath God wrought?

Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, lift and lift up himself as a young lion. He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey and drink of the blood of the slain. And Balak said unto Balaam, neither curse them at all nor bless them at all. But Balaam answered and said unto Balak, told not I thee saying, all that the Lord speaketh, that I must do. Let's go to Lord in prayer once more.

Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord this day for all that you have done. Lord, may you receive all the glory and praise and honor for what is done here this day. May you use your word and may your holy spirit take it and apply it to our lives and our hearts and challenge us in our service for you. We pray Lord if there be one here today is yet to put their faith and trust in you as the Lord and savior of their life that they would make this that decision this very day. In Jesus name, we pray.

Amen. Our theme verse this morning is numbers twenty three nineteen. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good.

Sadly, many times in life, someone has told me they're going to do something. And they didn't do it. I'm sure that's happened to you. Once or twice. I remember one time when a friend told me he was going to speak at a youth activity when I was a youth pastor.

It was a New Year's Eve lock in and I had arranged everything to fit his schedule so he could speak. And the time came. And we waited. And we waited. And we rearranged things because he was late and he never showed up and it was a bit disappointed.

I cringe to think that there have been times in my life when I have failed to come through as well. Usually, because I simply forgot. But forgetting is not excusable. We need to remember. But sometimes, we as humans do forget.

Sometimes, we change our mind. Sometimes, we just fail. We get distracted. We don't take things as seriously as we ought. And we even hurt and let down other people.

But God does not do that. He does not forget. He does not change his mind. He does what he says. He will do.

That's what Balaam is telling us or Balak here in this verse and there's nothing that Balaam or Barak can Balak can do about it. This verse comes from a rather comical story. We didn't read about the donkey part here in the story. Balak came to Balaam and said, I want you to come and curse Israel. And Balaam said, how much are you going to pay me?

Balaam was not a good prophet. Balak said, well, I'll pay you this and this and such and God told Balaam, don't don't do it. Don't go and well, Balaam just couldn't let it go. He just has a lot of money. He just couldn't let it go.

So, God finally said, okay, Balaam, you can go. You can go and go with Balak. Balak was afraid because the army of Israel was approaching Moab. They had already taken out the Amorites. They had already taken out their king and now they were approaching Moab.

Balak could have just let them go. That's all they wanted to do but he wasn't about to do that and so being afraid, he came to Balaam and and God finally said to Balaam, okay, you can go, you can go on this condition. Numbers 22, I think I have it here. Let's see here. Numbers twenty two thirty five.

The angel of Lord said unto Balaam, go with the man but only the word that I shall speak unto thee that thou shalt speak. So, Balaam went with the princess of Balak. He was required to speak only the words which the Lord placed in his mouth, mouth which were of course quite contrary to the will of Balak. Balak wanted to stop Israel. Balak wanted to defeat Israel and of course, that was not the Lord's design.

But God said, okay, Balaam, you can go and Balak will learn a lesson. And so what did what happened? Well, every time Balaam stood up to curse Israel, God put a blessing in his mouth and so the first time it happened and Bala got real upset and then they went to another place that happened again. This is the one here and then he'll leave here and try again. A third, time Balak would make these sacrifices and Balak said, okay, Balak, now speak and curse Israel and Balak would open his mouth and he bless Israel.

And Balak would get mad and upset. Well, that didn't make sense. He paid him a lot of money to curse Israel and all he does is bless them. That's why he said here, why bless them or curse them at all? Just keep your mouth shut if you're not gonna curse them like I paid you to do.

But that's that's why Balaam says what he says here. In other words, God is not a man that he should lie near the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said and shall he not do it? Hath he spoken And shall he not make it good? In other words, God is already determined what he is doing with Israel.

You're not changing it. Because God's not changing his mind. And God's not going to lie to his people. So, sorry but you're stuck. Because that's just that's just the way it is.

And so, Balak just dug his hole deeper and deeper. Let's take a look just a little for a few minutes quick closer at this at this verse. Kinda take it apart. God cannot what? Lies.

He cannot lie. This one thing, this is one thing for which God has no capacity. God has no capacity for lying. He is a god of truth. Amen.

And he cannot, he cannot lie. First Samuel fifteen twenty nine and also the strength of Israel. Notice strength is capitalized there because it's a title for God. The strength of Israel will not what? Will not lie nor repent.

Come back to that in a minute. For he is not a man that he should repent. Titus one two. In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began. That eternal life that you have in Jesus Christ, that's a promise from who?

That's a promise from God. Next verse, Hebrews six eighteen. That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. We can have a strong confidence in the Lord because it is impossible for God to what? It is impossible for God to lie.

Therefore, when God tells us something, we can know it is true. Therefore, when God promises us something, we can know that it will be what? Uh-huh. That it will be accomplished. We can trust in him.

Now, on the flip side is God's enemy, the devil. In John eight forty four, it says this, you are of your father, the devil. Jesus speaking to the Pharisees, the ones who had rejected him. He said, you are of the father, your father, the devil, and the lust of your father, you will do. He was a murderer from beginning abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him.

When he speaketh a lie, speaketh of himself of his own for he is a liar and the father of it. On the flip side, you have the devil and the devil is a liar. You can't trust anything that comes from who? That comes from the devil, that comes from Satan. You cannot trust anything he says.

Eve found that out the hard way in the Garden Of Eden. She should have trusted who? The Lord. She should have trusted in his word but she listened to the lies of Satan who said, yea, hath God said, no, you won't die. God just doesn't want you to be like who?

To be like him. He's withholding something from you. He's tricking you It was the devil who was the trickster. It is the devil who is the liar and he lies to people all the time every day. You won't get hurt by that sin.

It's just fun. God doesn't want you to have any fun. You won't get caught. There'll be no consequences. You don't need God.

You can handle it all by yourself. You can't get victory over sin. Just give up. Lies of who? Lies of the devil and they go on and on and on.

He is called the prince and power of the air. He is called in one place the God of this world, little G, not big G. He is at work. He is behind the evil that is constantly before us. Don't listen to the devil.

He is a liar. Listen to who? The Lord. Don't trust in the lies of the devil in the world, in the flesh. Trust in the truth of God and his word.

Unfortunately, man is often prone to the same malady of lying and deceit. As we've all told, many lies in our lifetime. A sin which we use to try to cover up other sins having already been committed. I think of Saul. Samuel told Saul, God told Saul to go and kill all the Amalekites, their livestock, everything.

Saul came back and Samuel went out to meet him and Samuel heard the animals, all the animals he brought back with him. And and and Saul came up to Samuel. He said, I did everything God told me to do and Samuel says, well, well, what's then the bleeding of the the the bleeding of the the goats and the the the sheep and all that that I hear and Saul said, oh wow, that that wasn't me. The peep, the people, the people wanted them. Yeah, that that.

He was lying to cover his skin because he did not do everything that God told him to do. We're prone to do the same thing. Somehow, the devil tricks us into thinking, well, you're better off to lie so you don't get caught. But in the end we've been better off just to tell the truth and accept the consequences. Wouldn't we?

We lie to try to cover our sin We lie to manipulate a situation so that we might come out on top. I don't know who you think of but I know who I think of. His name was Jacob. He was Esau's little brother. And Esau was getting ready, I mean, not Esau, Isaac, sorry.

Isaac was getting ready to bless Esau and Jacob was afraid that what God had promised to Jacob wasn't going to come to be because of Isaac's blessing. Now, let me ask you a question. Was Isaac blessing going to change God's promise to Jacob? The answer to that is no. It wasn't.

God's promise was greater than than Isaac's blessing but Jacob just couldn't take the what? Couldn't take the chance. He couldn't take the risk. So, he with the help of his mother deceived his father in order to take Esau's blessing. Well, how did you think Esau felt about that?

Well, he was a little bit upset. A matter of fact, Jacob had to flee home because his brother was going to what? His brother was going to kill him. You know, just tell the truth, do the right thing. God does not need your help.

He has it under control. You do not need to manipulate others. It's a sin which we use hypocritically to seek the approval or attention of others who would reward us if we had actually performed the task or lived the life. In the New Testament, Jesus called the Pharisees and others who rejected him. He called them hypocrites many times.

What does that mean? Well, they were like actors. They were putting on a mask. They were playing a part. What they showed the people was not who they really were and who saw that?

Well, God did. Jesus did and the same thing is true today. If you're a hypocrite, you may be fooling other people but you will never fool who? God. You will never fool God.

I think about a couple in the church in Jerusalem. Their names were Ananias and Sapphira. Barnabas had sold all of his land and given it the the proceeds to the church and Ananias and Sapphira saw how how how praised he was and how the people loved him so to speak and they wanted that pat on the back too. They wanted that attention that Barnabas got. Well, right away, you know this is this is going the wrong direction because they're not doing it for the right what?

Now, they're not doing it for the right reason. They're doing it because they want the same praise that they saw Barnabas and other people got and so, that led to a very bad decision on their part and often times, we start out with a bad motivation, it leads to a very bad what? Decision and so, they decided, well, we'll sell the land, we'll give just a portion of the proceeds to the church but we'll tell them that it was the whole amount. And no harm done. You know, the church still gets money, gets donation, and they get their what?

Praise. But who knew? God. God knew. And what happened?

They both died. They lied to the Lord, the church, and God made an example of them and both of them died there before the Lord because they chose to lie and not tell the truth And the Bible says, fear came upon all the members of the church and I bet it did. They thought twice about lying in order to make themselves look what? To look good. For all of these reasons, we are prone and tempted to lie and sadly, sometimes we succumb and do.

We're not completely trustworthy in respect to the truth. But I know someone who is. Who we can listen to with full assurance. Others may claim this standing but only God truly fits in this category. The one who cannot lie.

Since therefore, God cannot lie, his word can be accepted with total confidence. Not my word. Sometimes, I slip up. Sometimes, I change my mind. Sometimes, I learn later.

Oh, that wasn't right. Because I'm human. I don't know everything. But God does know everything and he's not human. You can always trust.

Always trust that what he is telling you is the absolute what? Truth. In context with Israel, God had made promises to them. Can God lie to Israel? And the answer is no.

And God wasn't going to lie through Balaam either and have Balaam say something in his name that wasn't true because God cannot lie and therefore, Balaam spoke the truth to the consternation of the guy who paid him to say something different. Secondly, God does not repent. God cannot repent. Now, the word repent in Hebrew carries two different ideas depending upon the context and how it's used. It can mean to have remorse or regret and that's the way we often use the word repent and in the New Testament, the New Testament Greek word is metanoeo.

It means to have a change of mind or a change of heart but in the Old Testament, the word used in Hebrew either means to have remorse or regret or it means to change one's mind, to be fickle, okay? And that's the meaning here. God is not fickle. God does not what? Lying.

Lying. He doesn't lie and he doesn't change his mind, okay? How many times have you said something and then later you changed your what? Mind. How many times have you told somebody, well, I'm going to do it this way and then later, you changed your mind.

God has no need to change his mind because whatever determination he makes, it is the best, it is the true, it takes an account all of the variable because God knows everything. And he does not change. Therefore, he does not change his what? He does not change his mind. He's not fickle.

Therefore, you can trust him. Sometimes, when sometimes men lie straight out but often times, we say we believe one way or we say we're going to do something this way, we change our mind but not God. Not God. Malachi three six, I think I have that here. Yeah.

Malachi three six, for I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Now, what is this verse mean in context? Well, Israel conquered the land under Joshua. They went in and established their kingdom by the grace and help of almighty God.

He kept his promise to them but God said, if you turn from me to idols, I'll cast you back out of the land that I gave you and that's what they did and so what did God do? He cast them back out of the land. Hundreds of years later. But God said he would he would keep a remnant. A remnant who would stay true to him.

A remnant who would return and rebuild Jerusalem. A remnant that grew into the people of Israel when Jesus came. Back. God made a promise to Israel. And because of that promise, because he does not change, the sons or the descendants of Jacob or Israel are not what?

They were not are not consumed. Praise the Lord. He is a god of mercy and grace, compassion, long suffering, or else all of us would have been consumed a long time ago. But by God's grace, he sent his son. He came and he died on the cross for our sins.

He rose again from the dead. He came not to condemn the world but he came to save it and all who put their faith in him. Can be saved. That's the God we serve. That is the God of Israel and that was the God that when the remnant returned and that's when Malachi was speaking was return of the remnant and the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

God reminded them, you're not consumed because I don't change and I always keep my what? I always keep my promises. This makes God doubly trustworthy to perform what he has spoken for not only can he cannot lie but neither can he change his mind nor is he ever caught unawares by any situation. How many times have you told somebody you're going to do something and then something came up that you had no control over and you had to call em back and say, I'm sorry but I can't what? I can't do it.

You know, I I hurt myself and I can't do the thing I told you I was or you know, something was an accident or a tragedy in my family and I have to go do this. Things change. They're out of our what? Out of our control. They don't catch God by surprise and they're not out of his control and he does not forget and nothing slips his what?

Nothing slips his mind. The same cannot be true of us. We do change our minds. But we need to be careful not to needlessly or thoughtfully thoughtlessly change our minds and not keep our commitments. We need to purpose to be like who?

To be like our God. Yet, our yay be yay and our nay be nay. If you say yes, then do it. Do everything you can to fulfill what you said you would do. Don't take lightly your commitments.

We live in a world today that takes their commitments far too lightly and it's hard to trust anybody these days but there is one you can trust and that is God. God cannot lie. God cannot repent. Does not change his mind and God always does what he says. He always does.

He will death he said and shall he not do it? Will he not make it good? Does he not make it right? You can trust him. He always does.

But Jesus beheld them and said unto them, with man, this is impossible. With God, all things are what? All things are possible. God can do it. There are many things, things you might promise to do that you can't do.

Sometimes, you mistakenly say, I'm going to do it, not realizing that you are not able to do it. God doesn't make that mistake. Everything God says, he will do, he can do. We sing a little song with the kids. He's able, he's able, I know he is able, I know my Lord is able to carry me through, he healed the brokenhearted and he set the captive free he made the lame to walk again and he calls the blind to see he's able he's able I know he is able I know my Lord is able to carry me through The first thing you need to know and understand, God is able.

With man, many things are impossible but with God, all things are possible. The fact is there is no power in this universe that can stop God from fulfilling his promises and keeping his word. This is why we can trust in the prophecies of scripture. Why can you all this stuff in Revelation? Some of this stuff I hear.

Some of it's already happened. Why? Because God always keeps his what? Promises. Some of it has not yet to happen because it's supposed to happen yet in the future.

How can you trust it? How can God tell you what's going to happen in the future and you trust it? Because he is able to make it happen. He can tell you it's going to happen because he has the power to make it happen and it will. He is able.

God knows the future but he also molds the future according to his almighty plan. Amen. And we can trust. That his plan will be fulfilled. In context, Balak was asking Balaam by his pronouncements to alter God's plan for Israel.

Was not going to what? Was not going to happen. Even if Balaam said something otherwise, wouldn't change it. And so Balaam said, I'm not going to lie. God doesn't lie.

This is the way it is. Pay me what you want. I'm stuck and Balaam did feel stuck. Again, he was not a good prophet. But he knew that God keeps his promises and since God does not lie nor capriciously change his mind, we can be confident that he will keep his word toward us.

He will fulfill all his good promises Just as he would to Israel. It was this that gave confidence to Abraham when God commanded him to sacrifice Abel upon the altar. By faith, Abraham, when he was tried or tested, offered up Isaac and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. Why when God came to Abraham and said, I want you to take your only son. I want you to take a three day journey that mountain.

I want you to take him and I want you to kill him there for me. Why did Abraham get everything together, get his son, travel all that distance, come to that mountain, build an altar, put his son on that altar, and put a knife in his hand to kill him. Why did Abraham do that? That doesn't make sense. He did that because God had made a promise.

God had promised Abraham that through that son, God was going to make a great what? Nation. A great nation. Amen. And if that son died, and remain dead, then that promise would not come to be.

And Abraham knew that God keeps his wife. So, Abraham followed through. It tells us in Hebrews that Abraham believed that if indeed he did kill his son that God would raise him from the what? Raise him from the dead. Now, that wasn't God's plan.

God's plan was to provide a lamb, a ram, and a thicket to take Isaac's place like he provided Jesus Christ, his son to take our place. Amen. On the mountain where the temple was built and just a short distance from where Christ died on the cross for the sins of the world. That's why he had to travel three days to that mountain. Because that's where Jesus would die for you and me.

God keeps his promises. But you need to believe. Believing does matter. It matters to the part you play. And the fulfillment of those promises.

It matters. James says, ask in faith. Ask in faith. Believe. Let me ask you a question.

Did God give Israel the land of Canaan? He did. He conquered the foes. He gave them the land just like he told them he would do. Did he give them, did he give the first generation that came out of Egypt?

Did he give them that land? No. Did they take that land? Did they take, did they receive that land? The answer to that is those under the age of 40 or 30.

That's right. Didn't enter the land. They died in the what? They died in the wilderness. Why did they die in the wilderness?

Because God didn't keep his promise? No. Because when they got to the edge of the land and God said, go in and take it, they said, why? They said, no. No.

We don't want. We don't believe you. Their cities are walled. Their soldiers make us look like grasshoppers. They have chariots and they have weapons and they did not choose to trust and believe in the Lord and that older generation died in the wilderness and forty years later, their sons and daughters went in and they took the land that God had promised.

Amen. The challenge to you is believe. Believe in the promises of God. Jesus died to save you from your sins but you must choose to believe and trust in him. To do so.

It is only applicable to you. When you put your faith and trust in Jesus. All the blessings that God wants to give you as his child on this Earth are there for the taking victory over your sin, many many blessings. And so many times, we miss out on some of them because we don't what? We don't believe.

It's not that God is not it. God, that God won't keep his promises but you must put yourself in his hands and trust him. Believe. Jesus said, Mark nine twenty three here. Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth.

Just faith is a grain of what? A mustard seed. Doesn't take a lot of faith. Just faith. Noah did.

For one hundred years, he built an ark and God saved his family. Amen. God saved the world. Abraham did and God led him the promised land. He gave him a son in his old age and he made of him a great 90 nation.

David did and he stood before Goliath and he took a sling and he put it, he took a stone, he put in his sling, and the giant fell down before him. The shepherd boy became the king. Nehemiah did and the walls were built. Paul did and he tells us in Philippians four thirteen, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. One spoken or determined, nothing can stop the will of God.

Nor will any of his his promises fail to us. We can be certain of that because he does not lie. We can be certain of that because we can look back in these scriptures and see example after example how God kept his promises. We can see it in the lives of others. And if you're a Christian, you've experienced in your own life too.

God keeps his promises. You can be assured that you've you've trusted Christ for salvation. He will finish the work he has begun. Philippians one six, that there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Romans eight one and that we have passed from death unto what?

Life. Who are kept by the power of God. First Peter chapter one verse five. God has promised me a home in heaven. I will see it someday.

Amen. Not because of me. But because of him. Amen. Have you trusted Christ for your salvation?

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be what? Saved. Have you made that decision? You trusting in other things. You holding back?

And placing your your life in the hands of Jesus. Don't hold back anymore. You can trust him. You can trust him. Let's pray.

Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for this day. Thank you Lord for the opportunity to praise your name here together. Thank you Lord for your love and your goodness towards us and that you are a trustworthy God who cannot lie, who cannot repent, who does everything you say you're going to do. Lord, help us to trust in you. So, those precious promises that you have made are seen in our lives.

So, the others will see our good works and your good work in us and glorify the name of our father which is in heaven. And Lord, I pray if there's one here today that's never trusted Christ as savior, that today would be their day of salvation. That as we give this hymn of invitation, they would come. And we can show them today how they can be saved and know it. In Jesus name, we pray.

Amen.